Customer Reviews

F. Chopin - 24 Etudes for Piano Op.10 , Op 25

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was quite thrilled when I heard someone had recorded the complete etudes for DVD. Highly educational to watch for an amateur pianist. This review will address two points: The Instrument and Audio Synchronization.

The Instrument.

It was clear from the opening octaves of Op. 10 #1 that the star of the show was not Ms. Lisitsa but...the bass register of the Bosendorfer. Talk about an orchestra in a box. Its presence haunts (in a good way) the entire recording.

Bosendorfers are generally lightly regulated and this 1925 275 is no exception - in fact I have a feeling it is a bit over-enginereed.
This allows the performer to play with considerable ease and do some pretty spectacular things. Note the feather touch of Op. 25 #6 (thirds). Splendid. Remind me to record the etudes on this instrument.

Audio (A)synchronization.

With this ambitious project (Etudes AND DVD), its pretty much 'damned if you do, damned if you don't'. That is, if you choose to record uncut, you risk having people used to edited perfection on CDs dismiss the recording as amateur. If you dub, you risk having people cry fraud! Sigh.

It is a shame, but they chose pretty much what they had to do in today's world. Dub. One reviewer mentioned 40% of the material. I think that is high. The suspension of disbelief is held intact for most of the DVD. You may think the sound is late for quite a bit of the recording, but it is actually the delayed action of the instrument. This may be evident at the beginning of Op. 10 #3, and why would they dub that?

I would have preferred to just let the girl play. She has technique to burn. I can live with a few mistakes. Take Op. 10 #1. This one is definitely uncut. This is actually one of the harder etudes, yet she really makes it look easy. And dead even as well. Yet, there are a couple of misses. So what. And Op. 25 #6 (thirds) is also uncut - and she is just about perfect. If you want a lesson in physical economy, watch her play this etude. It cannot be approached better.

I recommend this DVD highly. It is certainly a 'pianists' video and I guarantee you will learn a lot from it. I took a star away for the audio sync, but don't blame her. Blame us.

And mortgage the house. Buy Bosendorfer.

Five Stars!! Valentina Lisitsa is one of the most heralded stars among the current generation of classical pianists and the DVD "Chopin 24 Etudes For Piano Op. 10 and Op. 25" is an excellent introduction. It's also a pleasure to "see" Ms Lisitsa playing, displaying her awesome technique and her tremendous right hand. The DVD is a graphic visual demonstration of how artfully different her fingering technique is on some works. Forget the controversy, this woman can 'scorch' with the best of them. And Chopin etudes are an excellent choice with which she can display her command of nuances as well as her keyboard fireworks, all while displaying little facial emotion. Total concentration. Fire and ice!!

My best of the best, Pieces D'Resistance, are the beautiful 10/1 with it's awesome arpeggios, the challenging fingerings of 10/2 (an apparent direct antecedent of the future "Flight of the Bumblebee"), 10/3 ("Tristesse") which Chopin felt was his most beautiful melody, the raging flames of 10/4, and the resounding echos built into 10/5: "the Black Keys Etude". Add to that, the stunning performances of 25/1 ("Shepherd Boy"), 25/2 ("Bees"), the grace notes of 25/5 ("Butterfly") which has been a huge influence on jazz pianists, 25/6, the howling gales of "Winter Wind" (25/11) and "Ocean" (25/12), and you have a wonderful compendium of Chopin etude performances, visually and aurally. It's interesting to note that these etudes were the first true seriously taken stand-alone pieces of their type and were dedicated to Franz Liszt (Op. 10) and Countess d'Agoult (Op 25). Chopin was in his mid-20's and already a certified and somewhat iconoclastic musical genius.

(NOTE: Truth be told, however, Ms Lisitsa's stunning good looks and her blue silk dress, cut to demand attention, occasionally threaten to upend her pianism with 'eye candy' shown from multiple camera angles. She could be dressed in a potato sack and we would notice her statuesque nordic-like beauty. But this can't be helped; this about the MUSIC. A few times, I got up and walked over to the speakers to just listen to her magnificent pianism, in and of itself: She's a great pianist!)

Five MAGNIFICENT Stars for her pianistic reading of Chopin, for the excellent sound recording, for the cinematography, and yes, the dress designer. LOL.

I've watched this several times, and I agree that this is a DVD worth purchasing. For pianists, especially, it's instructive to watch an artist with perfect technique. She clearly plays these pieces with ease, which is necessary if one hopes to play them musically, rather than as practice pieces.

As far as musical inspiration is concerned, this set is interesting, but falls a little short of the more well-known recordings (Pollini, Cortot, Ashkenazy, etc). Yet there are many moments of real poignancy here, and many of her tempos depart from the mainstream, usually with very good effect. I was impressed by the middle section of 25/10, which she plays very slowly, giving it a haunting quality. I was astounded by the lightness of touch in 25/6 and the ease with which she tosses of 10/1. In her hands, 25/9 is scintilating and 10/4 breathes fire. My main disappointment was with the last two. Both sounded a bit mechanical - I percieved neither the wind-swept desolation of 25/11 nor the surging pathos of 25/12.

Sound quality is first rate. The camera work is especially nice. I found it to be a perfect blend of angles - the hands are shown at the appropriate times, but the camera cuts to various views of the artist frequently enough that the audience is always aware of her presence as a person. We catch her smiling on multiple occasions (which I understand is a trademark of hers) but she never succumbs to the sort of contortions which are so distracting in some artists. The back and forth cutting of the camera in the middle section of 10/4 is clever and very effective. Clearly, the video people were very in tune with the whole music making experience and probably intimately familiar with the pieces.

Overall, the set is entertaining and instructive from beginning to end and well worth adding to any collection. For anyone who has actually learned any of these works (and I have) this video is full of superb insight.

At the conclusion of a student piano recital at my home, serveral of us, including a piano teacher on the faculty at New York's Mannes School of Music, gathered to look at Lisitsa's DVD. We are experienced concertgoers and have heard a wide range of pianists from the histrionic Lang Lang to the sublime Richard Goode. We were mesmerized by Lisitsa. Several of the students had played a few of the etudes and knew the difficulties of fingering and touch. Early on, they commented repeatedly on this and that of Lisitsa's virtuoso technique, but as she moved through the Etudes, all became quiet. The music she made silenced the room completely. At the conclusion, I offered to play some sections at slow motion so they could better analyze Lisitsa's technique. The group declined; her performance was too good to be spoiled by just technique. If you are serious about playing the piano, this DVD is a must.

In my forty years of collecting recordings, I have acquired or heard at least a couple of dozen versions of the complete Chopin Etudes. The first thing I can say is that even if this recording by Valentina Lisitsa were an audio-only CD, I would still be very happy to own it. I would place it among my top two versions, the other being by Juana Zayes. Lisitsa is not only magnficent technically and tonally, but is much more musically compelling, and plays with much greater imagination, than such famous pianists as Maurizio Pollini (dull and colorless) or Vladimir Ashkenazy (who rarely offers anything more than mere competence). Her interpretations are personal, but never sound willful or mannered.

Add to this the stunning video production and excellent, rich sound, and this becomes a truly exceptional document. The camera work is breathtakingly imaginative, with beautiful lighting and multiple camera angles that exchange or crossfade into one another, never haphazardly or randomly, but always in a way that illuminates the technical demands of the particular Etude being played and enhances the musical experience. This DVD is a magnificent achievement, and I recommend it highly.

Everything is good in this DVD. The performance is excelent, the quality of image and sound too. Someone sad about a fail in synchronism between image and sound. In fact, I delay more than one year to buy it because of this information. BUT, I didn't experience anything like that. The DVD is perfect!

I desagree about "bad" interpretation. The performance is different in some cases, thats true. Some of the pieces are faster than, for example, Arrau. But, I think she have "the right" to perfom as she wants. She is a very serious artist and you can confirm this information going to her site. (http://www.valentinalisitsa.com)

Ukrainian virtuosa, Valentina Lisitsa, is nicely filmed playing the Chopin etudes from Opus 10 and 25. Her Bosendorfer piano is well recorded in Dolby Digital / PCM Stereo sound. I particularly liked the transitions from one etude to the next. As a pianist, I enjoyed the various camera angles that display Lisitsa's hands and technique. In general, her interpretation of each piece allows the music to "breathe." Her playing is reminiscent of Rachmaninov's style...almost improvisatory in long melodic phrases but taught and rhythmic when needed. A wonderful first dvd from a rising star. Check out her amazing performance of the fugue section of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" sonata: [...]

Valentina Lisitsa -- remember the name, and when she is in the town, get ye to the concert. She is special. Yes, quick-silver fingered, like many a Russian pianist; yes, a thunderer and a conjurer of colorful sonorities; and yes, very emotional... and yet, she has something those "new and young Russians" do not possess -- a thoughtful personality, a sense where each note of the piece belongs not just within the piece itself but within the body of the composer's works. On the surface, she is much closer to Ervin Nyiregyhazi than to Martha Argerich, to whom Valentina is often compared in the press. Hearing Ms. Lisitsa in a recent solo concert, it was Nyiregyhazi's name that came to my mind -- Nyiregyhazi the Magician, the Conjurer, the Great Trickster, and unfortunately the greatest career disaster among the greatest pianists of the Golden Era. There is something about Lisitsa's playing that slices the music at the angle at which time the most intriguing layered structure is revealed and that is very characteristic of Nyiregyhazi and other major pianists of Hungarian school.

I could not wait to have the 24 etudes in my collection. Marvelously done! A VERY good performance and execution, both visual and audio. Many years ago Harold Schonberg said to one Russian pianist who intended to record all of the Chopins' etudes, "Do not record the complete Chopin Etudes lest your name is Josef Hoffmann." Well, Valentina's DVD proves otherwise. Maybe it's not "a Hoffmann," but Hoffmann was irreplicable, and that's besides the point and completely irrelevant today. Her rendition of the etudes is 10 times more interesting and captivating than what's available today on the market, including such big wigs as Ashkenazi and Guiomar Novaes. Besides, it is FUN to watch. Again, brava! Great accomplishment!

Her husband (no tyro at the keyboard himself, by the way) did all the visuals. Commendable job! Much of the camera work is stylistically reminiscent of the Glenn Gould/Bruno Monsaingeon teamwork, which is a compliment.

I hope this is not her last DVD project. There are also Liszt's Transcendental Etudes, which Valentina already plays often in her recitals; and there are also "the terrifying fifty-three," Chopin's Etudes in dizzying Godowski's arrangement -- a repertoire only a few chosen have ever tried to harness. So far, no competition... Avanti!

Both video and audio quality of this DVD are very good. The editing spoils the show a bit for us pianists. Lots of camera angles and lots of time spent away from the keyboard. During the whole "arpeggios" etude you don't see her hands at all. Makes you wonder if there was some kind of problem.

There is no printed enclosure to tell you about the pianist or the recording.

I was absolutely spellbound. The artist, the video and the sound are superb. Valentina's performances were breathtaking and so far as I can tell, flawless. The Bosendorfer is an instrument that all piano lovers should experience. I'm so glad that I found this DVD!